May 13, 2011

ATLANTA - Three Terrapin softball players earned Atlantic Coast Conference honors the league announced Friday. Senior Kerry Hickey was named ACC Pitcher of the Year, while junior Vangie Galindo earned a spot on the All-ACC First Team with Hickey. Junior Bree Hanafin was named to the All-ACC Second Team.

Hickey is the first Terrapin ever to win ACC Pitcher of the Year and first to win an individual award since Kelly Shipman won Player of the Year in 1999. She was named to the All-ACC Second Team as a sophomore in 2009.

Her ERA of 1.49 is tied for first in the league and is No. 35 in the NCAA. She is second in the Maryland record books in career strikeouts with 650. She threw her 11th career no-hitter at Florida State on April 23.

Galindo is second in the league with her .418 batting average and she leads with her 71 hits this season. Last weekend, the broke Maryland's single season hits record of 70 set by Jenny Belak in 2006. Her current .329 career average is the best in Terps history, as is her season average.

Hanafin is sixth in the ACC with a .365 average, which is top five in the Maryland record books for season average. She leads the Terps in RBI with 33 and home runs with eight.

The third-seeded Terrapins will begin play in the ACC Tournament Friday with a noon game vs. sixth-seeded North Carolina State at Georgia Tech's Mewborn Field.

This year marks the Terrapins' highest league finish since 2002.

The Terps (38-16, 12-7 ACC) and the Wolfpack (26-22, 7-12 ACC) will play the first game of the seven game tournament. The noon game will be streamed live on The ACC Video Center.

For the full ACC Tournament bracket and more information, please visit theacc.com.

The Terps split a doubleheader with NC State in College Park earlier this year, winning game one 3-1 and falling in game two 2-1. The first game of the three-game series was canceled due to inclement weather.